The Baki clan was a very large one, it almost covered half of the Baki city. It was like a small city itself with tall walls and several entry points.
They got to the main gate which was about a thousand feet tall and there were guards stationed at the entry point, "Halt! intruders aren't allowed here, state your business and if you have none, leave at once!" One of the guards spoke with a loud voice.
"Open the gates, the patriarch is here," One of the elders in front spoke.
The guards looked properly and noticed the party of eight. Seeing the white and green colored robes that elders wore; and the usual dark robes with a star-shaped scar at the top of Patriarch Hong's forehead the guards immediately became respectful and bowed their heads slightly, "Patriarch Hong, our sincere apologies for speaking out of place,"
Patriarch Hong just waved with an expressionless look which depicted that he wasn't bothered after all they were doing their job.
Alusec saw this and felt that he wasn't as unreasonable as he thought because he remembered that back then people in the position of such power would make sure they cut off the tongue of whoever spoke to them in such a manner. The only problem Alusec had was with the patriarch wearing his signature black robes, and having pigtails as a hairstyle, "No sauce at all, he has to stop wearing black," Alusec thought as he scrutinized Patriarch Hong again not knowing that Patriarch Hong was also scrutinizing him, 'I've never seen such a hair before, it's like he has thousands of baby snakes growing out of his scalp.' They were scrutinizing each other not knowing that Briella was stealing glances every now and then at Alusec. If it wasn't for the night, they would have noticed the shade of red on her cheeks.
The gates had already been opened for them, Alusec could see structures of different types everywhere as they flew across the place. There were seven different mountains in the west area where they were headed and each of those mountains had a building at the peak with several buildings erected below, and the mountain in the middle was the tallest of the seven. The building at the top was very luxurious and at the front, there was a statue of a man, holding a moon in each palm and raising them.
On seeing this from a distance of more than a hundred meters, Alusec remembered that the girls he saved and their father with the four elders had an insignia of two overlapping moons on the back of their garments.
After flying for a particular distance, "Father I'm going back to my quarters," Briella said to her father who she thought had forgotten that she stayed in the east with the alchemists.
"Oh yes, Briella you're coming with us this night, we have a guest remember? It will be rude not to have a family dinner. You can head back to your quarters tomorrow," Patriarch Hong stated.
Briella nodded in understanding, complying with her father's wishes leaving him in a state of confusion, 'How come she didn't argue this time?' Patriarch Hong wondered. He has always known his daughter as the kind that liked her privacy and didn't care whether there was a visitor or not, they would never be interested in having family dinner with a total stranger. Briella in particular moved out of the Patriarch quarters when she was old enough and went through all the tests necessary to get recruited as a disciple into the alchemy court without the help of her father. She never liked the ideology of cutting through corners to get through situations even though she knew that her father's word was enough for her to get in without going through any tests. A lot of members in the clan didn't even know that she was the Patriarch's daughter.
The patriarch sent the four elders a mental message that there would be a meeting with all the elders and sub-elders the next morning and no one is allowed to miss it.
The elders separated from them while the four of them silently flew towards the building on the middle mountain. They got into the building after the guards at the entrance greeted them with so much politeness.
Alusec noticed that it was more like a palace. There guards stationed at different places as they headed to the dining area.
Patriarch Hong asked Alusec what he would like to have and Alusec just told straight up asked for the room he would be staying in, saying he wanted to retire for the night, shocking the patriarch and both daughters. They all had the same thought, 'isn't he the reason for having a family dinner this night?'
Alusec saw the weird looks on their faces and asked, "Or am I not being hosted anymore?"
"You inconsiderate di..." Ivrena was in the process of insulting Alusec when her father gave her a fierce stare.
"I only came here for a purpose and after I have fulfilled that, I'll be taking my leave," Alusec said clearing the air so they don't have misleading thoughts but his statement still made them confused, 'He came here for a purpose? what purpose?'
"Your punishment starts tomorrow and it has been increased to four weeks for not knowing how to show appreciation," Patriarch Hong said with a poker face.
Ivrena stared at her sister with a pleading look hoping that she would come to her rescue since she was their father's favorite according to her opinion but Briella just ignored the sentence, not even sparing Ivrena a glance. She felt that her nonsense had gone on for too long without a punishment.
Ivrena was disappointed and stared at the culprit responsible for this incident with hate, Alusec stared back at her and smirked, making her boil in anger all the more.
The Patriarch called on one of the guards to lead Alusec to one of the guest rooms. Alusec made a request saying that he must not be disturbed until he decides to leave the room out of his jurisdiction. The Patriarch nodded, complying with his requests.
Alusec arrived at the room after several minutes of walking with the guard. After going in, what greeted his sight was a large room about the size of a tennis court. There were two large curtains on the sides and a small shelf filled with rows and columns of books. The bed was big enough to contain more than seven people. Alusec noticed that there was a small cubicle that was locked. He remembered that the guard handed him a key stone, he held the key stone and inserted it into the hole on the left side of the door and it opened up.
"Ssshhhh!"
Steam started coming out of the small cubicle and Alusec entered noticing that the cubicle was bigger in size when on the inside than on the outside.
"A cultivation room with space shrinking," Alusec immediately figured out the purpose and structure of the room.
"It increases the speed of cultivation by two. Turns out the Baki clan is richer than I thought..." Alusec thought out loud. Although this wasn't new to him, as the former god-king he had seen much better. What actually surprised him was that this was supposed to be a mid-level universal planet so things like this were supposed to be very scarce, if not non-existent due to lack of resources but then again he felt half a million years was a lot of time for a change.
Alusec sat in the cubicle and closed the door, "There's no need for me to stabilize my breakthrough since I'm re-cultivating but I'll need to start aligning my sources to prepare myself for when I reach the supreme level again," Alusec said while closing his eyes.